Between Two Epochs What's Ahead for America, the World, and Global Politics in the Twenty-First Century?

The philosopher Hegel once observed that the owl of Minerva only rises at night, that by the time we begin to understand fully some reality, it is already fading from view and giving way to another reality. Night has fallen on the twentieth century and given way to a new day, but it is not yet clear what this new day looks like in terms of its basic features, particularly those relating to world affairs. What has been a familiar world of nation-states whose main organizing principle has been sovereignty is being transformed before our eyes into "a new world order" whose character is less well defined. As I comment in Chapter 1, "Like the passengers on a large ship, humanity seems to be undergoing passage through unfamiliar and somewhat treacherous straits. We have left one international system the Cold War system behind and are seeking to establish our bearings in a new system." For sure, some recognizable elements of the recent past remain--notably, the ongoing struggle for power and wealth among countries pursuing their national interests. Yet, alongside these much-traveled currents are some uncharted waters--represented by the growth of multinational corporations, the spread of the Internet and globe-circling technologies, and other developments--which, we cannot be sure, may amount to either small eddies or a giant sea change in the way human beings relate to each other on the planet. It is the main thesis of this book that we are, in fact,between two epochs,one whose roots go back over 300 years ago to the birth of the nation-state and the other which seems to be, in James Rosenau's words, an emergent "post-international politics" era. This book was inspired by the many students I have had the good fortune to teach over the years in my World Politics course. From the first time I taught this course in 1972, the lecture which always seemed to bring out the best in me and in them was the last one of the semester, when I would invite them to take out their crystal balls and speculate about what "world order" might look like in "the year 2000 and beyond." What was not only likely but desirable? Would (should) the contemporary state system persist? Would (should) we be moving in the direction of regionalism and possibly world government, or perhaps in the opposite direction, toward more localized grassroots governance? Little did I know thirty years ago that the new millennium would arrive so quickly, with so many questions unanswered and the world seemingly moving in so many different directions at once.Between Two Epochsis an attempt to engage students in further critical thinking about some of the most profound empirical and normative questions of our time, questions having to do with how people will be organized politically and will govern their affairs, toward what ends. It should find a broad audience not only in international relations courses but in political science courses generally and, indeed, will be of potential interest to anyone concerned about the future of humankind. The organization of the book has the following logic. Part One tries to lay out "the puzzle," that is, the challenge of making sense today out of what seem to be not merely complex trends but contradictory, paradoxical ones. Part Two tries to "put the pieces together," offering a way out of the conundrum by suggesting how we might best conceptualize world politics in the early twenty-first century. Part Three provides some concluding futuristic reflections, mindful of Rene Dubos's caution that "trend is not destiny." Throughout the book, I have tried to apply high standards of scholarship, including endnotes containing numerous citations of various works I drew on, without burdening the reader unduly with jargon and esoterica; the notes have been placed at the rear for purposes of streamlining the body of the text. There is also an appendix that contains chapter-by-chapter "discussion questionsRochester, J. Martin is the author of 'Between Two Epochs What's Ahead for America, the World, and Global Politics in the Twenty-First Century?', published 2001 under ISBN 9780130871107 and ISBN 0130871109.